Advancing Universal Rights and Justice
Uprooting Fascisms and Fundamentalisms
Across the globe, feminist, women’s rights and gender justice defenders are challenging the agendas of fascist and fundamentalist actors. These oppressive forces target women, persons who are non-conforming in their gender identity, expression and/or sexual orientation, and other oppressed communities.
Discriminatory ideologies are undermining and co-opting our human rights systems and standards, with the aim of making rights the preserve of only certain groups. In the face of this, the Advancing Universal Rights and Justice (AURJ) initiative promotes the universality of rights - the foundational principle that human rights belong to everyone, no matter who they are, without exception.
We create space for feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements and allies to recognize, strategize and take collective action to counter the influence and impact of anti-rights actors. We also seek to advance women’s rights and feminist frameworks, norms and proposals, and to protect and promote the universality of rights.
Our actions
Through this initiative, we:
- Build knowledge: We support feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements by disseminating and popularizing knowledge and key messages about anti-rights actors, their strategies, and impact in the international human rights systems through AWID’s leadership role in the collaborative platform, the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)*.
- Advance feminist agendas: We ally ourselves with partners in international human rights spaces including, the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission on the Status of Women and the UN General Assembly.
- Create and amplify alternatives: We engage with our members to ensure that international commitments, resolutions and norms reflect and are fed back into organizing in other spaces locally, nationally and regionally.
- Mobilize solidarity action: We take action alongside women human rights defenders (WHRDs) including trans and intersex defenders and young feminists, working to challenge fundamentalisms and fascisms and call attention to situations of risk.
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Ika Vantiani
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We would like to thank the Amar.ela collective of women feminists activists and creatives who made this series possible, and especially Natalia Mallo (the team’s octopus) for her support and accompaniment throughout this journey.
We also extend our deepest gratitude and admiration to all the collectives and people who participated in this project, and we thank them for sharing their time, wisdom, dreams and hopes with us. We thank you for making this world a more just, feminist and sustainable one.
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There is nothing like being in a shared space, exchanging body energies,... seeing the world and doing something together. Events like the Forum are among the strongest of the global feminist movement.
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What about the visas?
We are acutely aware of the practical hurdles and emotional distress associated with international travel, particularly from the Global South. AWID is working with TCEB (the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau) to support Forum participants with acquiring visas. More information about this visa assistance will be available upon registration, including contact information for where and how to apply.
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AWID in 2016: Co-Creating Feminist Futures
AWID is pleased to share our 2016 Annual Report.

2016 was an incredible year for AWID, we convened the 13th International AWID Forum in Bahia, Brazil, a space for strategizing and alliance building with feminists and other justice movements, which was attended by over 1800 participants from 120 countries and territories across the globe.
We know that women’s rights and feminist movements are key actors in creating sustainable transformative change. Within our movements, organizing, resisting and responding to the challenging context is sharpening, and in our increasingly connected world, the potential for collective action across diverse movements has dramatically grown.
This is the crucial work that AWID seeks to amplify and support every day.
What we achieved in 2016
We expanded solidarity and joint action across diverse movements
A highlight of 2016 was our ground-breaking 13th International Forum with the theme: “Feminist Futures: Building Collective Power for Rights and Justice”, where we harnessed the thinking and energy of nearly 500 partners, presenters, panelists, moderators, artivists, writers, facilitators, IT innovators, and performers, many of them leaders in their movements. We also supported the convening of the first and historical Black Feminisms Forum (BFF) organised by a working group of Black Feminists from across the world.
We strengthened knowledge of issues and strategies
- On challenging corporate power - we produced ‘Challenging corporate power: Struggles for women’s rights, economic and gender justice’ with the Solidarity Center, revealing the scale and scope of corporate power and outlining how corporations in collusion with elites and other powerful actors, are impacting the lives of women and oppressed peoples.
- On feminist economies - we released ‘Feminist Propositions for a Just Economy’ with the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) and the African Women’s Development and Communication Network FEMNET.
- On Young Feminist Activism - we published ‘Brave, Creative, Resilient: The Global State of Young Feminist Organizing’, a young feminist mapping project.
We contributed to collective advocacy
AWID, in partnership with other feminist and women’s rights organisations, engaged in advocacy and dialogue to explore better solutions for women’s rights agendas including our work with the Count Me In! consortium .
We increased the visibility of movements
The experiences of women with disabilities, Black and Afro-descendant women, sex workers, Indigenous women, trans and intersex people, domestic workers and how their lives are impacted by multiple oppressions and violence were placed front and center of the Forum process.
We also launched the 2016 WHRD Tribute to commemorate defenders who are no longer with us, during the 16 Days of activism, and thanks to the contributions from our members,
We drove attention to groups and issues that do not usually receive adequate mainstream media coverage through our partnership with The Guardian and Mama Cash.
Our members

Barin Kobane
Barin was a member of the all-women fighting unit of the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG)
She was killed while on active duty.
Lebanese journalist Hifaa Zuaiter wrote: “Barin represents everything we have heard about the courage of the Kurdish female fighters, and her death is far more than the killing of a rival, or the result of a political or ethnic struggle. The horror of displaying her body only because she is a woman stems from the fact that she dared to threaten male hegemony by becoming a female fighter on a battlefield meant for men”.
CFA 2023 - Themes - ar

المواضيع
نرحب بالطلبات عبر مجموعة كاملة من المواضيع والتقاطعات المهمة للحركات النسوية وحركات العدالة الجندرية. في نموذج الطلب، ستتمكن/ين من تحديد أكثر من موضوع يناسب نشاطك.
- أجساد حرة، أرواح حرة: كل ما يتعلق بالاستقلالية الجسدية، الجندر والجنسانية، الصحة والحقوق الإنجابية، التحرر من العنف القائم على النوع الاجتماعي، وحرية العيش بأمان، المتعة والفرح في أجسادنا وهوياتنا ومجتمعاتنا المتنوعة، وأكثر من ذلك بكثير .
- مقاومة محاربة الحقوق: محليًا وعالميًا، تقود النسويات والنسويون الطريق في مقاومة جميع أشكال الاضطهاد المتعدد الجوانب، بما في ذلك الفاشية والأصولية والأنظمة الاستبدادية؛ لدينا الكثير لمشاركته ووضع الاستراتيجيات مع بعضنا البعض.
- الحركات والتنظيم: دعونا نتعرف على حركات بعضنا البعض. من التنقل في السلطة (الداخلية والخارجية) إلى استراتيجيات الحماية في مواجهة قمع المرأة والمدافعين/ات عن حقوق الإنسان المتنوعي/ات الجندر، ومن بناء التحالفات إلى الأشكال الإبداعية والناجحة للتنظيم، دعونا نتعلم ونستلهم من بعضنا البعض.
- العدالة الاقتصادية والاقتصاد النسوي: يشمل هذا الموضوع جميع الجهود النسوية لتحويل اقتصاداتنا، من تحدي النماذج الاستخراجية السائدة والدفاع عن حقوق العمل إلى تجسيد وعيش الممارسات والبدائل الاقتصادية النسوية في الحياة اليومية.
- تمويل /توفير الموارد للنشاطات: يمثل تأمين التمويل الذي تشتد الحاجة إليه تحديًا مشتركًا للحركات في جميع أنحاء العالم؛ دعونا نفكك معًا نظام التمويل النسوي، بدءًا من التحليل النقدي وحتى التجارب المباشرة والطرق العملية لتمويل العمل النسوي.
- المناخ، العدالة البيئية، الأرض والمياه: للعدالة البيئية والمناخية جذور عميقة في العديد من حركاتنا ومجتمعاتنا؛ من التقاليد القديمة إلى الرؤى المستقبلية، ومن القرى البيئية إلى الحملات لإنهاء الاستخراج وترقية العدالة الصحية، ندعو إلى نطاق كامل من الأنشطة المتعلقة بجميع جوانب العدالة المناخية والبيئية.
- العسكرة، الحرب والصراع: نهدف إلى تسليط الضوء على تنظيم وتحليل التجارب النسوية في كثير من الأحيان في الجبهة الأمامية للاستجابة للأزمات والمساعدة في الحفاظ على الحياة والمجتمع والعدالة في أقسى أوقات الحرب والصراع الذي طال أمده.
- إنهاء الاستعمار: يعتبر إنهاء الاستعمار أمرًا أساسيًا في كل موضوع من موضوعاتنا، ولكنه يقف أيضًا بمفرده، كأجندة نسوية رئيسية للمقاومة وبناء العالم في العديد من الحقائق الاستعمارية وما بعد الاستعمارية.
- الواقع الرقمي والتكنولوجيا النسوية: نرحب بفرصة الاحتفاء بالمبادرات النسوية المذهلة التي تحول العوالم الرقمية، وتتحدى هياكل السلطة التكنولوجية الكبيرة، وتضفي الطابع الديمقراطي على التكنولوجيا من خلال الناس ومن أجلهم حقًا.
- العدالة الشفائية: هناك تنوع مذهل في أساليب الرعاية الجماعية والعدالة الشفائية. في جميع أنحاء العالم، يستعيد المشافين/ات والحركات العدالة الشفائية كمبدأ سياسي، ومجموعة من الممارسات، ورحلة تعليمية، وأسلوب حياة، والكثير غير ذلك.
- أضف/ أضيفي موضوعك هنا!

